this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2024
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You don’t need to be an expert in electoral politics to understand Rule One of any campaign: Candidates should pursue as many votes as possible. In a democracy, it’s common sense: The more votes a campaign has, the greater the chance of success.

With this in mind, Donald Trump appears to have a counterintuitive rhetorical habit. The New Republic noted:

On Fox News Thursday morning, Donald Trump had a weird instruction for his supporters: they don’t have to vote. “My instruction: We don’t need the votes, I have so many votes,” Trump said on Fox & Friends before going on a rant about how much support he has in Florida.

As a clip from the show makes clear, the former president didn’t appear to be kidding: https://x.com/atrupar/status/1816482779581775943

If the phrasing sounded at all familiar, it’s not your imagination. The day after last month’s presidential debate, for example, Trump held a rally in Virginia and told attendees, “We don’t need votes.”

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[–] [email protected] 217 points 1 month ago (4 children)

They don't need the votes because they have a plan in place to seize the power with undemocratic measures.

It's all he's been saying the last few weeks. If you listen to him, he says again and again, that they plan to abolish american democracy.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 month ago (1 children)

ISTG if trump loses, incites another insurrection and we still don't put him jail I don't know what the point of it is anymore.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is a common feeling with a lot of people. Not jailing rapists and other criminals just because their daddies were wealthy breaks down the social fabric. After all, if it's everyone for themselves, why shouldn't I steal from Walmart? Why should I not commit fraud against corps? Why should I not try and murder a presidential candidate?

The public not seeing that crimes against the social contract have consequences will be the actual thing that breaks society, not gay people loving each other.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

As one of the other posters mentioned (@[email protected]) , it's exactly this. Johnson will refuse to certify the results of the election that put Democrats in the House, claiming some kind of bullshit irregularities with no proof, leaving the House controlled by facists. They'll then claim irregularities in the presidential election and force a contingent election where they have a 100% chance of electing Trump no matter what the public votes.

More people need to be made aware that this is 100% legal for them to do, and more people need to be aware that it is almost certainly what they will try. The only thing that can possibly stop it is significant awareness by the mass population of Americans and significant publicity (similar to how mass awareness of Project 2025 turned it into a poison pill).

EDIT: Oh look, they’ve already started making it super-legal in battleground states: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/06/georgia-local-election-boards-allowed-withhold-vote-certification

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Conservatives: "It's just a joke!"

Also Conservatives: "Jan 06 was tourists!"

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[–] [email protected] 167 points 1 month ago (6 children)

He's going to attack the capital. Again.

[–] [email protected] 104 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Attacking capital is great, it's attacking capitols I have a problem with

[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Last time they only got in because Trump stopped the security forces from doing their job. This time it will be different.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Get rekt, Jackson!

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Attacking the capital was a last-ditch hail mary move, and only viable when he controlled the military.

They're going to use baseless conspiracies to try to fuck with the election certification enough (with an assist from the courts) to force a contingent election in the House, where they'll likely have a majority of state delegations.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago

Well, that's terrifying

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The whole Republicans house is in on it again. They have a multi-prong plan to seize the White House, from voter suppression to elector rigging, gerrymandering and outright violent intimidation. The coup will be much better planned this time.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Love to see the face of Jan 6 2.0 rioters, when they realized someone in power actually wants to stop them this time

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago

Way harder to do when you aren’t the sitting president

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

He's going to attack the ~~capital~~ electoral process. Again.

This is why Democrats are saying the need to win overwhelmingly

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[–] [email protected] 127 points 1 month ago (1 children)

One aspect of the fake elector scheme was to block the counting of rightfully assigned electoral college votes.

If they can successfully do that in enough states to prevent either candidate from getting 270, then it goes to the House of Representatives to select the president.

Each state gets one vote, and since there are only 19 states with Democratic controlled legislatures, that would guarantee a Trump win, no voting necessary.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

They managed to shore this one up after Jan 6. Now, instead of just needing a single Representative and Senator to challenge a vote, you need 1/5 of each body.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Electoral_Count_Reform_and_Presidential_Transition_Improvement_Act_of_2022

So an improvement, no doubt Election Denialers have more schemes in mind though.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago

Even at 1/5th of each body... 88 Congressmen and 20 Senators... The Republicans have that, 220 and 50.

[–] [email protected] 106 points 1 month ago (3 children)

This article, combined with the Rolling Stone article just posted about 70+ election deniers running elections in critical states and counties, I have a strong feeling that Trump thinks he has already stolen the next election. The fix is in.

[–] [email protected] 79 points 1 month ago

This is it. His advisors have told him about this plan, and the orange idiot can’t keep his fucking yap shut about anything. He’s literally saying the quiet part out loud.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Anything we can do to get the traitors out of these key positions?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago

Nothing I'd want to suggest on a public forum..

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[–] [email protected] 94 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Because the fix is in with the Republican state legislatures and Republican Governors; and The DOJ / Supreme Court is gladly eating Trump’s soiled diapers with a fork and knife

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It's gonna be 2001 again unless Harris can really knock it out of the park

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Only this time tRump owns the supreme Court

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is my take too. Whole country votes solidly blue but the SC crowns Trump king anyways.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't think they can do that, but I don't doubt they'll try

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Trump has done literally hundreds of things he "can't" do and only one person has come anywhere close to stopping him.

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[–] zaph 62 points 1 month ago

If there's one thing magats have right it's that Donnie tells it like he sees it. The reason he doesn't need votes is because he thinks he can steal the election. It's pretty simple when you don't look too deep and with him you never should.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

"We don't need the votes because we're going to call this election rigged and stolen just like the last one. We're going to challenge the legitimacy of Harris as a candidate and draw out the election results in court for years. Hopefully we'll get it to the supreme court where my lackies will nullify the results and declare me leader. At the same time, we'll call for more violence against our enemies and try to incite a full blown civil war because I'm a narcissistic man-child who can't accept that I could be wrong and lose."

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Even if you are planning to cheat, you'd still want as many people voting for you as possible.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago

This implies he’s conniving. I don’t think he’s mentally fit enough anymore. Behind closed doors he worries about what will happen if he loses and they tell him, “you don’t need the votes, we’ll fix it if you don’t get them” and he’s just not with it enough to not brag about how smart and great he is. He lets things slip all the time. So now he’s made speeches saying people won’t have to vote, they’re going to fix it for him, etc. His team is likely freaking out that he keeps slipping, but it’s mixed in with so much bullshit rambling that it’s easy to play off. We absolutely need to be prepared for fuckery this fall.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sorry, I never watched Naruto

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

President of Venezuela. Got 30% of the vote. Had his guys say he won anyways.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

Damn, I hope Naruto stops him

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Because he wants to be a dictator, why is this a question?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

"Why does a fascist say fascist things??"

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago

Sounds like something a weird ass geriatric narcissist would say

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

Because he wants to become a dictator for life

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Maybe it's his feeble attempt at reverse psychology? It's probably something more nefarious but we must account for stupidity

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

Probably a mixture of overconfidence and saying the quiet part out loud (i.e. he expects state and local leaders to "give him" the win). If you're in a swing state you really need to volunteer to watch the polls or help administer.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Because he's counting on not having, or needing, the votes to win. His plan is to call the Election rigged, get Mike Johnson to refuse to certify the results, throw the election. Being "So confident" that he has more than enough votes to win, and then showing election results that have him way behind Harris, will just feed his narrative of a rigged election. He'll go on about how a disparity like that isn't possible, Johnson will parrot the same shit, opening a process that is much more unclear to certify a different result.

Trump is laying the groundwork for an election loss, sewing seeds of doubt that he could lose my any margin, much less a big one. When the results come in, the bigger the landslide against him, the louder his screeching that it was obviously rigged.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

He didn't care for the look of needing just 11,780 votes, so he doesn't need any.

[–] mindbleach 8 points 1 month ago

THERE WAS A FAILED COUP.

STOP PRETENDING IT'S NOT OBVIOUS.

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